Some More Photo's from "A Quick Little Trip"

 Getting ready to take off on the 40 mile ride.

 The "boys" coming back from a sand dune razor riding fest and then enjoying the hot tub and ice cream service.

A few short weeks later, our good friend Steve (picture with Razor and left in the pool) was flying back from a business trip in England and had a heart attack 6 hours out.  He didn't tell anyone until he was sure the plane would land in the US and then they made an emergency landing in Portland, Oregon and off he went in an ambulance to the hospital too late by all medical standards.   But he has made a miraculous recovery when he had a 40% chance of not surviving the event.  It has shaken all of us.  I know that we have amazing friends, but when something like this happens, you realize how much you love them and need them and count on them.  Steve, we love you and are so thankful you are still here kickin' and look forward to many more years with you riding by our sides or probably way out in front leading the way!

A Late Eagle

Three years ago Patrick finished his Eagle Scout Rank and received his Eagle certificate in the mail.  He never had an Eagle Court of Honor.  I think he just fell through the cracks and none of the leaders remembered.  He didn't seem worried about it and life went on for the 14 year old Pat.  Last month in church, an announcement was made that two of his friends were getting their Eagles at a court of honor.  I quickly talked to the Scout Master and told him about Patrick and he surely wanted to include him.  Patrick was very excited!  

 A woman from Hogle Zoo and Tracy Aviary came with a live eagle.  It was truly amazing to see this creature, who as Patrick said "had more authority than me," stare at us all and look so regal.  

 The Eagle's nest!  Look for Mark and Mitchell in there.

I Can Do Hard Things

At the start!

Last Friday Shalane, Malorie and I drove up to Logan to get ready for the "Little Red Riding Hood Bike Ride".  We had a nice dinner, stretched and went to bed in our hotel.  It was a rough night for me as the garbage truck--flashing lights and all, picked up the garbage right next to our room at 4:00 am.  Then after getting back to sleep, someone's car alarm went off and then I heard a flood of water and realized it was just the room above us flushing the toilet.  Being tired before even starting the ride was not in my plan.


The hotel was full of women and bikes.  There were some hardcore looking biker chicks getting ready Saturday morning.  There were over 3000 riders with 1000 signed up for the hundred miler.  Shalane's knees were really bothering her, so she opted for the 18 mile ride.  Mal and I missed her competitive spirit but found out we had a little competitiveness in us as well.


It looked like it would rain any minute as we drove to the start in Lewiston.  We parked in a field and carried our bikes to the road for fear of thorns and started around 8:00.  At mile 4 I saw someone with a flat and thought, "they didn't carry their bike."  At mile 6 there were a few more flats and I started to worry about my bike. I had all the stuff to fix one except the actual patch and the ability to use the stuff as I haven't changed a flat yet.


I lost Mal at around mile 5 when I got stuck in a large group and couldn't get out.  I found her again at the first rest stop and we kept going.  We were riding about 20-22 MPH and having so much fun.  It was flat and we felt great.  We stayed together until mile 50 where we had lunch.  We still felt good and had so much fun passing groups and getting passed by them again and again.  After our quick lunch, we left for the second 50 miles.  It started out right up a hill and I got down to 10 MPH and thought that I would never finish going that slow.  We started to follow a group that were obviously together.  They went fast, had cool hand signals and stayed right together.  I drafted them for many miles and it was my favorite part of the ride.  Mal was right there with me until I got stuck in another crowd again and off she went.  I was behind for a while and then caught back up.


We got to mile 75 and we were both pretty tired and sore.  We stopped and stretched, ate and drank and wondered if we could do the last 25 miles.  I saw Rosie Nelson there and she looked quite surprised to see me there.  I loved it.  We didn't see many flat tires after the first 50 and I think all the centurions had better bikes.  Several times I thought how thankful I am for a wonderful husband who makes sure I have the best equipment and knows how to outfit and take care of a bike.  I know that Mal thought the same thing about Kevin.


We rode on and on through little tiny Idaho towns that my grandparents grew up in, Preston, Dayton and Franklin.  There were a few more hills and we were tired but we tried to keep to about 15 MPH or more.  My feet started to feel like they do after skiing all day, they were going numb and then burning as if on fire but I kept on going. As we rode into the finish, I checked my bike computer and we had finished in 5 hours, 59 minutes and 14 seconds.  I had a goal of finishing in 6 hours.  I hadn't ever looked at the clock, I just watched the MPH and the total miles, so I was very happy and even a bit teary as we finished up.  It was very hard and I don't know if I want to do it again real soon, but I felt so good that I actually could do it.


Malorie and Shalane are the most wonderful daughter-in-laws in the world.  They treat me like I am one of them instead of the old grandma that I am.  We had so much fun together.   And for that reason alone, I may be persuaded to do it again!

At the finish! I was so tired I forgot to take off my helmet.

Kaitlyn's Blessing

Mark and I flew to LA to attend Kaitlyn's baby blessing on Memorial Day weekend.  We went to the beach and had lunch on the Santa Monica Pier on Saturday.  We met Susan and Ron, Jeremy's parents in the evening and went to our favorite little Italian Restaurant,  Pomodoro Trattoria.  It is on 1393 Westwood Blvd and worth stopping in if you are in the area.  Have the gnocchi, it tastes just like Florence!  We met the owner, David and had a great conversation about skiing outside the front door.  I miss the food and will go there again.  We also like the Novel Cafe on 1101 Gayley Avenue.  They have a great breakfast and lunch menu.  

Getting ready on Sunday.  I made her dress and she looked like a little angel.

Mark and I went over to see the LA Temple grounds.

What a handsome man I married!

We love our little Kaitlyn so much.  We love Jeremy and Natalie too, and wish they all lived a little closer.   We had a great fast trip and enjoyed every minute of it.  

A Quick Little Trip

The first weekend in April we invited our biking friends to spend a few days in St. George with us.  We had so much fun we didn't really get any pictures and the ones the waitress took aren't so great.


We started out on our first ride on Friday morning.  I had ridden this a year ago and thought it was a great 40 mile ride.  I remembered a small pioneer town at the end right after the Gunlock Reservoir.  Off the ten of us went--several with brand new bikes.  We spread out on the road and everything was great right up until mile 20-something where there was no town, only a few houses and a church. (See post: "A Long Time")  We (I) had planned to eat lunch at the small town, so we only brought water bottles and they were empty.  Everyone was hungry and tired.  A lady let us fill up our bottles from her hose and we turned around.  Melanie was having trouble with leg cramps and we caught her on the way back and told her we would send Mark and Steve (the fast ones) ahead to get the truck and come back to pick her up.


It was a lovely day and a lovely ride through the Shivwits Indian Reservation and along the Virgin River. There was a restaurant about three miles from home where we had reservations for dinner that night.  A few of us thought it might be good to stop there to have our long awaited lunch.  Without cell phones to communicate, we wondered how to let everyone know.  Stacy and I were riding together ahead of everyone except Mark and Steve (the rescue party).  We waited at the turn to inform about lunch.  Liz passed us before we decided to have lunch.  She was the Everready bunny, the proverbial tortoise, slow but very steady.  We saw Ann and Karl and after sending them on to lunch, we decided to go ourselves.  As we arrived at the restaurant, we see Mark and Steve and Liz riding up on their bikes.  "What in the world?"  As it turns out the rescue party got sick--Steve leg cramps and Mark dire hunger and thirst.  Mark had stopped to get a drink and Steve passed him without knowing and then stopped by the side of the road to rest.  Mark rides up with an ice cold cup of lemonade and he and Steve decide to go back to the restaurant to refresh before continuing on home to get the truck.  I loved what Steve said when he looked up and saw Liz riding towards his resting place along the side of the road, "And up comes Liz".


(Side note:  Many years ago Liz got lost in an open air market in Jamaica with the same group.  As we were all looking for her a native old man who I am sure was high on ganja, said "Liz no lost, no one lost here" in his thick accent.  We quote it all the time, especially me and Steve.)  By the way, I would not recommend going to Jamaica at all, anytime.  But that is a different story for a different day.


Meanwhile, just as the rescue party rides up to the restaurant, we all look down the road to see Melanie and Scott riding quickly up to the lunch spot.  They didn't need to be rescued after all.  We had a wonderful lunch, all rode home together and came back a few hours later for dinner.


We had so much fun in the big hot tub or spool as we call it, making whirlpools, telling secrets and playing 20 questions.  What a fun/funny group of friends we have!


The next day we did a ride up Snow Canyon (5 miles uphill) and then 15 miles downhill which is my favorite ride.  My friends were all tired and should not have trusted me after Friday's debacle, but surprisingly,  they all followed me again.  And it was wonderful!  Liz made my day when she said she would follow me anywhere.  We sure have had a lot of adventures together.

Masters National Ski Races

One of Mark's dreams came true the end of March when he and three of his boys competed in the Masters Nationals.  They all did very well and scored some podiums.  Alta and Ellie love to watch the races.  Maybe someday Natalie can be here and when Patrick ages to qualify, the whole family can compete.  

Ski Racing Magazine put a picture and article about the skiing Brower family.  

Making a major contribution to the size of the field at the nationals was the four-strong Brower family. Dad (Mark, of Brower Timing) races in Class 6, while the boys, Daniel (29), Kevin (27), and Mitchell (23) all race in Class 1. Now that all the boys are living in the Salt Lake City area, they get to a few masters races during the season, and after coordinating their schedules, they took Park City by storm. Kevin, a back-country skier and filmmaker had the best results with a pair of thirds in the Class 1 slalom and GS, although Daniel had won the first run of slalom before blowing out in the second run. But it’s not about the results for the family. “It’s just a lot of fun skiing with my kids,” said Mark. “It’s the greatest thing ever.”

The only problem with the short article was they got it wrong.  It has always been about competition with the whole Brower family whether ACT test scores, any kind of racing in any sport, wall sits, home wrestling, grades, and anything else that can be made into a competition.  If there is no real desire to compete, Mark throws a cash prize into the mix--like when the annual Christmas gingerbread houses started to turn to junk.  It is so much fun and most of the time there is lots of love and laughter! 

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A Long Time

So it has been a long time.....that is what my high school and college journals say way too much.  Our computer is full and will not download any more pictures and I have purchased three different external hard drives but two have failed and I get nervous to delete anything.  What if in a few days, I needed that picture etc?  Kind of like cleaning out or dejunking which I really love to do.  Except I get mixed messages from myself like, "I might need that soon, I am so glad to be rid of so much stuff".  I really do like to drop off stuff at DI and I especially like to see that garbage truck take away stuff that I don't have to clean or take care of anymore.  A little known fact is I really enjoy reading a good "get rid of clutter" book.  I have a lot of them.  I think that if I read them and have them, the clutter will find a way out.


Also in the last few months, I feel like my brain is getting full.  I have so many years of stuff up in there.  Do I need to delete or can I add on another hard drive to hold another 50 years or so?  I also need some reading glasses so I don't misread or misunderstand as I have lately.  So old age has indeed finally caught up or at least middle age----can't remember, can't read, too full.  So the following posts will catch up what we have been doing for the last few months and hopefully, I can get back in the habit of posting again.